Antigua

Antigua is, together with Barbuda, an independent state, with a rich history from the British Colonial Days. English Harbour in the south of Antigua is dating back to 1745, and looks today much like it did when it was finished in 1789 thanks to restauration work. This was our first stop at the island. The harbor is well protected and a natural Hurricane Hole. We dropped anchor well inside the bay, and spent a few days exploring the local area. Ashore it is a short walk to the neighboring Falmouth Harbour. It is interesting to walk around between the old buildings and imagine how it looked like back in the old days with the British Admirals fleet moored at the docks. Today the harbor is full of super yachts, which is nice to admire occasionally for us other sailors.

In between the two harbors there are quite a few cool restaurants and bars with good atmosphere, where sailors and crew from the super yachts both hang out.

We also stopped a few days further north at Antigua, at Jolly Harbor. This was the first time we saw other Norwegian boats since we left Norway back in October, and here there were actually 3 other ones. We met up with some of them a few times, which was really nice, and we wish them fair winds until we meet again. We also met up with our friends from Cat’s Meowhere, and we set sail together when we left Antigua, but in different directions. We hope to see you guys soon again!

Jolly Harbor is a BIG harbor, and we definitely learned to appreciate to have a dinghy with a motor, or “Lille Tango” or “Vetle Tango” (little Tango) as we have come to call it. We found a good spot to drop anchor in less than 2 meters of water, by the beach on the outskirts of the bay. This is a good place to go if you need to get work done on your boat, since the marinas here are used to working on “normal” sailboats, not only super yachts, as they tend to do in English and Falmouth Harbor.

We were planning and looking forward to seeing more ashore at Antigua, like visiting Stingray City for snorkeling with stingrays, and sailing to the neighboring island of Barbuda. But as the weather plays a major role in our decision-making process, we unfortunately will have to take a rain check for those experiences. Sailing between the islands in the Caribbean can be rough in certain weather conditions, and the same goes for anchoring or taking a mooring at some of the islands/anchorages. We therefore chose to leave Antigua during a weather window, meaning a nice sail to our next destination in Sint Marteen and their very well protected lagoon.

For some reason we do not have any good pictures from Antigua, so we throw in some random ones 🙂